Exclusive powers of the Lok Sabha
Topic: Parliament: Composition, Powers and Law-making · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 5 "Legislature"
Meaning
These are powers that only the Lok Sabha holds and the Rajya Sabha does not share. They are:
- Money bills (bills only about taxes, borrowing or spending) can start only in the Lok Sabha, and it has the final say (Art. 109).
- Only the Lok Sabha votes on demands for grants, which are the ministries' requests for money (Art. 113).
- Only the Lok Sabha can remove the Council of Ministers through a no-confidence motion (Art. 75(3)).
- Only the Lok Sabha can disapprove a national emergency by a simple majority (Art. 352, added by the 44th Amendment, 1978).
Class 11 gives the reason: the House the people elect directly should be the one that can remove a government and control the purse.
Example
Coalition governments fell in the Lok Sabha in 1990, 1997 and 1999. Vajpayee's government lost by one vote in 1999. The Rajya Sabha could not have removed any of them, because the ministers are responsible to the Lok Sabha alone.
Don't confuse with
- Special powers of the Rajya Sabha: powers held only by the upper House, such as Art. 249 and Art. 312 resolutions and starting the removal of the Vice-President.